A Cabinet sitting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan. Prior to the discussion of the agenda items, the Prime Minister issued a number of instructions.
The Head of Government first referred to the National Assembly-approved 2017-2022 Government Program, which envisages measures and activities for the development of specific sectors along with clear-cut deadlines.
Whereas the program has already been approved for implementation and proceeding from the Government’s accountability policy, the Prime Minister instructed the heads of executive agencies to develop and submit to the Government Staff action plans based on the Government Program for 2017-2022, which should clearly define the responsible persons and the terms of implementation on a quarterly basis. Quarterly progress reports will also have to be presented to the Government Staff.
“We are giving a restart to our efforts: we will work in the same mode – at least a six-day work schedule per week and a program adapted to our previous assignments,” Karen Karapetyan noted.
The Premier’s next instruction referred to the semi-annual reports. Taking into account that the first half-year of the Government-initiated actions and priority tasks for 2017 is nearing completion, and that the National Statistical Service is due to finalize the semi-annual statistical data, Karen Karapetyan assigned the heads of executive bodies to sum up and submit to the Government Staff by this July 28 per-sector performance reports for the first half-year of 2017 with a focus on the government-led measures, compliance with the priority tasks and the amount of actual investments, based on analytical data made public by the National Statistical Service.
The Prime Minister instructed to provide information to the public at large as soon as required by paragraph 1.
“We have to summarize the first half of the year, including what we had planned and what we have done. We will state the reasons behind the shortfalls, should there be any incomplete things, and indicate when they will be completed. Though I think there should not be any such items on the agenda,” the Premier said.
The Government approved investment projects for the construction of a 110-hectare-wide semi-closed greenhouse complex and a mildew cheese factory on a site adjacent to Noragavit district as presented by Spayka and ArmSanproodact limited liability companies.
Over 200 million US dollars will be invested to set up a semi-closed greenhouse farm with an annual capacity of 1000 tons of blue cheese, which will enable to provide over 1,300 permanent jobs, expand production and exports.
The Executive amended the Government Decree of December 29, 2016 on establishing target areas for the use of Road Police Service’s off-budget funds in 2017 and made coordinating changes to the 2017 State budget law.
RA Minister of Defense Vigen Sargsyan noted that the decision stems from the need to improve the housing conditions of the families of killed, deceased and disabled servicemen. The Minister said that according to the decision, the extra-budgetary funds collected from surveillance camera-recorded road traffic offences shall be redistributed to address the housing problems of killed or disabled servicemen’s homeless and disadvantaged families.
At the end of the meeting, Prime Minister Karapetyan once again touched upon the government’s program and noted, “We have declared that we know exactly what needs to be changed. The Program sets it out in all detail and for each sector. We have also announced that this is not an easy task, but we definitely have chosen a road that will change the quality of our citizens’ lives. Please, be very responsible, adapt today’s assignments on the spot and work at the same pace.”